Small businesses who feel they are already suffering from social media overload may feel exasperated that Google has piled on to the trend with its new Google+ service. But it’s still worth investigating if you manage to finaggle an invite into the beta phase of this social media service.

Google has integrated its search service directly into Google+, allowing users to mark sites they find useful with a “+1” button. We’ve added this button to our pages at ITBusiness.ca (look to the left of this article)- clicking on it will share the article with your friends in Google Search. So the next time your friends are looking for related content, they’ll see that you recommended an ITBusiness.ca article about that topic. It adds social context to the search experience.

Google+ also has good tools to control the flow of information among your social circles and the ability to retrieve your data from Google’s servers. Some brands are already establishing a presence on the social network. Check it out in our latest ExpressIT video: